AKRON, Ohio — A Summit County judge dismissed three charges against former FirstEnergy lobbyist Michael Dowling but left intact the central bribery accusations against him and former CEO Chuck Jones as the case heads toward a second trial.
In a ruling dated July 30, which wasn’t made public until this week, Summit County Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross threw out two counts of tampering with records and one count of telecommunications fraud against Dowling.
She ruled that prosecutors failed during the first trial to ask her to instruct jurors that they could consider Dowling as an accomplice rather than as the principal offender. Prosecutors acknowledged the mistake in court filings and during hearings…